PS2 on HDTV?

The 7th Number

The 7th Number

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I was thinking of getting a PS2, but now that i have a HDTV, im worried it wont look that good. Does anyone here play a ps2 on a HDTV? If so can you take pics and show me in game play? Unless there is somewhere online that shows what it would look like. I tried to look but i couldnt really find anything. Thanks.
 
I play my PS2 games on an HDTV, and frankly, the results are not great. Component cables are a must, of course, and any game that supports progressive scan will look much cleaner.

Some games look a lot better than others, and sometimes you even have different results within the same game, as with Final Fantasy XII where normal gameplay looks all right, but the FMVs were a complete pixelated mess. Other random observations: With Final Fantasy X and X-2, exploration gameplay looks okay but the battles are blurry and ghosty (do battles run at a different resolution?). Cel-shaded games like Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy tend to look blocky. Persona 3 and God of War look pretty damn good all-around. Wild ARMs 5 also looks very nice, except for the overworld exploration which has the same problems as FFX's battles. Etc., etc.

In short, mileage definitely varies depending on the graphical style of the game, but with practically every game you're going to notice at least some blocky/blurry/jaggy stuff going on. The fact is that your television has to blow up that image to a size and level of detail that the PS2 is just not equipped to handle.

One more bit of advice, unless the game actually supports 16:9 aspect ratio, don't be tempted to play it on 16:9. Just change the television's display mode to 4:3 and deal with the black columns, unless you want every game to look like an absolute blurry abortion.

(Oddly enough, I've had much better overall results with GameCube games. Twilight Princess, F-Zero GX, and Wave Race: Blue Storm in particular look fantastic on my television.)

My television is a Samsung 32" LCD.
 
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Hmmm i have a samsung 40 inch tv. I sit about 5 feet away from the screen. I guess i could always hook it up to my old tv thats in the basement. But thats not exactly a place where i want to play games. LOL.
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']Hmmm i have a samsung 40 inch tv. I sit about 5 feet away from the screen.[/quote]Get used to sitting further away. :) Seriously, it's a less-than-ideal setup, but don't let it prevent you from enjoying all the great games on PS2.

If it's really going to bother you, try to stick with games that support progressive scan because the results on an HDTV really are worlds better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_HD_support
 
Hmmm well its impossible for my to sit any further back to be honest.

The GTA series doesnt support progressive scan so that sucks. Neither does God Hand or The Warriors. But the God of War games do, and Shadow of the Colossus. Hmmm.
 
[quote name='The 7th Number']Hmmm i have a samsung 40 inch tv. I sit about 5 feet away from the screen. I guess i could always hook it up to my old tv thats in the basement. But thats not exactly a place where i want to play games. LOL.[/quote]

Samsung 40 inch. I bet you have the exact same tv as me. I just got it recently, and I play ps2 games on ps3. They do look bad to be honest. I would sit far away or hook it up to a old tv.
 
You might want to somehow test God of War II on your HDTV-- like, could you borrow a friend's PS2 and rent the game? Because that is the top of the heap as far as PS2 games looking decent in HD (and it really does look surprisingly good-- in 16:9 480p mode, it could aaaaalmost be a current-gen game, they really squeezed the hardware dry on that one).

Then try something like Katamari Damacy or Final Fantasy X to get a sense of the issues that you'll experience with a "typical" PS2 game. That might give you an idea of where your tolerance is.
 
Not only will it look bad, the input is guaranteed to lag at least a few frames, which will affect timing based games like rhythm/fighting/shmup. This makes some of those games unplayable.

Even worse, if you decide to use a backwards compat. PS3 instead, the PS3 adds a minimum of 3 frames when in BC mode, regardless of TV or input, due to frame buffering.

I have a handy guide in my sig regarding this!
 
Honestly, lag hasn't been a problem for me. I mostly play RPGs but I've also played a lot of rhythm and fighting games without noticing anything. Maybe it's less of a problem with Samsung LCDs. Just my experience.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Honestly, lag hasn't been a problem for me. I mostly play RPGs but I've also played a lot of rhythm and fighting games without noticing anything. Maybe it's less of a problem with Samsung LCDs. Just my experience.[/quote]

God of War and Shadow of the Colossus will look awesome. Everything else looks like butt.
 
I have to disagree. While a CRT is still best, with the right settings PS2 games will look just fine on an HD set. I have a 40" Samsung LCD (720p), sit about 8' away, and the PS2 is connected with a composite cable. The image is a bit softer, but overall I'm quite happy with the way it looks.
 
My PS2 looks just fine.
I have a 50" Samsung DLP. I play in 4:3 mode so the picture doesn't looked all stretched and have no fears of burn in like with plasma, and have no lag as I would with LCD.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']I play my PS2 games on an HDTV, and frankly, the results are not great. Component cables are a must, of course, and any game that supports progressive scan will look much cleaner.

Some games look a lot better than others, and sometimes you even have different results within the same game, as with Final Fantasy XII where normal gameplay looks all right, but the FMVs were a complete pixelated mess. Other random observations: With Final Fantasy X and X-2, exploration gameplay looks okay but the battles are blurry and ghosty (do battles run at a different resolution?). Cel-shaded games like Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy tend to look blocky. Persona 3 and God of War look pretty damn good all-around. Wild ARMs 5 also looks very nice, except for the overworld exploration which has the same problems as FFX's battles. Etc., etc.

In short, mileage definitely varies depending on the graphical style of the game, but with practically every game you're going to notice at least some blocky/blurry/jaggy stuff going on. The fact is that your television has to blow up that image to a size and level of detail that the PS2 is just not equipped to handle.

One more bit of advice, unless the game actually supports 16:9 aspect ratio, don't be tempted to play it on 16:9. Just change the television's display mode to 4:3 and deal with the black columns, unless you want every game to look like an absolute blurry abortion.

(Oddly enough, I've had much better overall results with GameCube games. Twilight Princess, F-Zero GX, and Wave Race: Blue Storm in particular look fantastic on my television.)

My television is a Samsung 32" LCD.[/quote]

no surprise, AAA gamecube games have much better graphics than ps2 games. GoW is an exception and would probably look good on an HDTV considering it has progressive scan.
 
One thing that is necessary to remember, you will need component cables if you want to get the best results from a PS2 on an HDTV. I currently have a PS2 hooked up to a standard crt 32' component, and a BC PS3 on my Sony 40' 1080P HDMI. In 4:3, every game is playable on the HDTV. While some games do look slightly better on the 32' tube, almost everything is ok on the HDTV.
 
I think picture quality depends a lot on which hdtv you have. Some seem to handle standard pictures better than others. For instance, I have a ps2 connected to an old 720p 40 in Sony HDTV and I have a PS2 connected to a newer 1080p 45 in Sony HDTV (both with component cables). The PS2 games look better on the 720p HDTV.

As another example, I have my PS3 connected to my 45 in Sony and my friend has his PS3 connected to a 32 in Olivia HDTV. PS3 games look a lot better on my HDTV than his. It is really noticable and I sort of feel sorry for him playing on his crappy little hdtv. Clearly, HDTV brand makes a big difference.

That being said, my PS2 games look fine on both my tvs. A few are a little blocky, but it is nothing game-breaking to me. For some reason I am more bothered by the picture quality of my Wii which I also have connected to my 45 in HDTV. Wii games in general look worse on my HDTV than PS2 games. I know that the Wii is not a high def system, but I don't understand why it does either equal to or worse than the PS2 when played on an HDTV. Its a new system, IMO it should perform better than a much older system.
 
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